Troy (Ilion) was an ancient city located in northwest Anatolia, a few kilometres removed from the Dardanelles. The city is famous as the focal point for the ancient Greek stories about the Trojan War. The archaeological site of Hisarlik is thought to be the location of ancient Troy.

Encounter with a sea-monster
Hercules at Troy
Once, the demigod Hercules (Herakles) travelled to Troy and killed a sea-monster for the city’s king, Laomedon. When Laomedon refused to pay the hero for his services, things took a dramatic turn.

Did Odin come from Troy?
The Anatolian origins of the Norse pantheon
According to the Prose Edda, attributed to the Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241), the Norse gods were foreigners. They had made the trek northwards and westwards from their original home in Anatolia: the ancient city of Troy.

The modern Odysseus
Odysseus’ performs many ill-deeds on his twenty-year journey from Ithaca to Troy and back again. In the modern world, we are often enraptured by the details of his journey, but we can also be deeply ambivalent about the complicated man himself.

Aeneas treated by Iapyx
A fresco inspired by Virgil's Aeneid
A beautiful fresco from Pompeii depicts a scene straight from Virgil’s Aeneid: Aeneas being treated for a leg wound.

Aristeia and philotimia
Two key concepts of the ancient Greek world
In this article, we explore two important concepts of the warrior ethos that was at the heart of ancient Greek culture.

Romantic love in Homer
Some material in a doctoral thesis never makes the final cut, but can instead be turned into articles. An example is a peer-reviewed article that I wrote about romantic love in the Homeric epics.

The movie Troy (2004)
Roel Konijnendijk, Matthew Lloyd, and Josho Brouwers talk about the sword-and-sandal film Troy (2004), directed by Wolfgang Petersen.

Aeneas before Virgil
Early Greek sources about the Trojan hero
The Trojan hero Aeneas, made famous by Virgil’s epic poem, has been the subject of ancient texts and art going as far back as Homer.

Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) was inspired by a myriad of different world cultures. In her twentieth novel, Lavinia, she took as inspiration Virgil’s epic poem the Aeneid.

Wretched Cassandra
Of all the tragic figures in the story of the Trojan War, perhaps none has suffered more than poor Cassandra.